Kuwaiti dissident slams ‘Arab occupation of Judea,’ says Kuwaitis warming up to Israel

Kuwaiti dissident says the war with Iran has led to a major shift in how people in the Gulf Arab state view Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

The war with Iran has led many Kuwaitis to reevaluate their views on Israel, a dissident journalist said over the weekend, following a highly publicized address to the United Nations Human Rights Council defending Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria.

On Sunday, Middle East political analyst and journalist Jasem Aljuraid told The Jerusalem Post that the ongoing conflict with Iran has eroded the traditional anti-Israel narratives that have prevailed in Kuwait for years.

After more than a month of fighting, Aljuraid said that Kuwaitis have witnessed Israeli military action directed at Iran while also experiencing the fallout of Iranian attacks. Aljuraid noted that a worker at a Kuwaiti desalination plant was killed in a recent Iranian attack, which also damaged a major Kuwaiti power facility.

Iran’s strikes on Kuwait and other Gulf Arab states, Aljuraid said, have forced Kuwaitis to reassess who their true adversaries are.

“They see that Israel is throwing and shooting missiles that pass Kuwait’s airspace going toward Iran,” Aljuraid said. “This is an unprecedented time for Kuwaitis to change their perspective and their opinion about Israel.”

While he did not predict formal normalization with Israel in the near future, Aljuraid said that a growing number of Kuwaitis appear to be willing to rethink their long-held assumptions regarding the Jewish state – a development that could lead the government to soften its ban on contact with Israelis.

Aljuraid, who was fired from the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas over his calls for normalizing ties with Israel, also faced death threats and in 2022 was convicted over comments he made to an Israeli journalist. He has since fled to Canada, where he currently resides.

Last Wednesday, Aljuraid addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council to condemn the body’s frequent criticism of Israel and defended Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria.

“I heard the term ‘colonizers’ but who are the real colonizers? A Jewish kingdom ruled in Judea for a thousand years,” Aljuraid said.

“We, the Arabs, took this land. Who Arabized Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians, and Amazighs? It was us, the Arabs. So why does the Council enshrine a lie by keeping a permanent agenda item on Palestine while ignoring the indigenous heart of Israel returning home?”

Aljuraid went on to call Israel a “fighter for peaceful nations, freeing Gaza from Hamas and saving Iranians from the Islamic Republic.”